General purpose control systems for devices are commercially available from multiple sources, such as from Crestron Electronics, Inc. of Rockleigh, N.J. Such systems typically have a main or “master” controller that may be independent or integrated with a device such as Adagio Audio that serves as the control processor. The control processor is loaded with code using logic symbols defining how each device will be used. Devices may be placed into the system and specify which control port those devices are connected to and default options for that device. The devices are controlled by the central controller via their communication interfaces
Conventional general purpose control systems may be adapted for a variety of environments, such as educational and medical environments. A modern medical environment, particularly an operating room or other surgical environment, may have multiple different devices, including environmental, audio-visual (AV) devices and particular medical devices that are desired without any consideration of the environment control system. While some devices such as lighting device might be considered standard, in some medical environments there may be an uncompromising insistence on using particular medical devices, and a control system has to be able to adapt to such medical devices.
Environmental devices include devices such as room lights and room cameras. AV devices include devices such as displays and display panels, CD (Compact Disc) players, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) recorders, VTRs (Video Tape Recorder) and reference image storage servers. Medical devices include devices such as ultrasound equipment, laparoscopes, x-ray machines, laser scalpels, surgical lights, medical navigation devices and endoscopes. Some medical devices, such as endoscopes, provide video or image signals. The devices in a medical environment can be interconnected in a network and have the same communication interface (or at least operate according to the same communication protocol). Examples of such medical environments are discussed in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005/0128184 and 2005/0284491.
However, unlike other environments, there are several problems associated with the control system for devices in a medical environment. Since the medical procedures cannot be adversely affected by a device or system failure, the network and control system tends to be limited in functionality and convenience when compared to other environments. Medical environments are not the same and each one will differ in the configuration of devices, and configuration of the control system for an individual unique medical environment presents special considerations. Even the same medical environment can be different over time as medical devices or other devices are removed or added to the environment.
Conventionally, the control system for an individual medical environment is unique and the software utilized in the control system is custom built and installed. When a device is added to the environment, the custom built software has to be recompiled. These limitations implicate practical limitations on the control systems for medical environments. The systems cannot be set up by medical personnel and must be set up by a person having knowledge of the programming language.
Some control systems have associated software programs that enable some steps in the automation of controlled devices to be automatically generated. For example, once a device has been dragged into the configuration in Crestron's Systembuilder programming platform, the programmer can use automatically generated templates or can manually create page design layouts with VTPro e (Crestron's touch panel design interface). After the code has been complied and loaded onto the “control system” it cannot be retrieved to edit or change and can only be changed by a person with a copy of the original program. They cannot be viewed or changed by the end user.
In a Crestron system, only an external PC loaded with either SIMPL Windows software or the Systembuilder program can change the way the system functions and, as mentioned above, the program loaded onto the system would be required. The end user may change only items such as saving pre-sets or timers. If a piece of equipment needs to be changed a certified developer would be required to make changes to the program, recompile and upload to the control processor. This also applies to the layout and naming of buttons on Touch Panels which need to be modified via Systembuilder or VTPro e. In a Creston environment there is no device native to the system that can by an end user edit any part of the operation of the program or the visual aesthetics of any touch panel connected to the system.
Both Systembuilder and SIMPL Windows rely on an external program (VTPro e) to create Touch Panel pages and then use digital links (joins) in order to associate the program to the Touch Panel buttons. Systembuilder is capable of creating some of these links automatically however again this cannot be accessed through the control system itself or by an end user. The Programmer can select a theme for the Touch Panels which will define colours and button attributes and this theme and all pages for control need to be uploaded to each Touch Panel or Panel Processor. Again once this has been loaded it cannot be changed by the user and cannot be extracted from the system.